Heartless
by Dantalion
Summary: Dreams and reality are sometimes hard to tell apart. Darkness can turn even the brightest light pitch black.
1. Dream World

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts nor any characters of Square Enix. This will be the darker version of a wonderful game I played a lot as a child. Please enjoy and review your thoughts on it.

_ It was a nightmare. This was a nightmare...….right?_

I tried to open my eyes as strained as they were and barely managed them open to squint a bit. Now that I could see a bit I turned a bit to check out my surroundings.

Despite the haze and blurred vision I had, I managed to get up on to my feet and got a better view of where I currently was located. My head was heavy and I felt pretty tired as if I just ran all over town or something. My arms ached as if I've worked them out recently and I was slightly out of breath.

'_Strange…' _I thought as I scratched my head.

The area I was in looked like I was in a town of some sort. Nothing like I've ever seen before though. There were bright lights, colorful buildings to the point of silliness and it had a very warm and cartoon feeling to them. The brown cobblestone streets were well taken care of and old black lampposts were erected sparingly but just enough to keep the place lit that were placed in nice shrubberies.

Wondering if anyone was here, I started off on to the right and made my way up the road lined by buildings that seemed to be houses and stores that were painted in warm colors. The place seemed pretty deserted but that could just been because it was nighttime.

By now I definitely knew this was not Destiny Island and stopped for a bit as I noticed something.

My hand was wet? My mind was finally beginning to clear at last thanks to the cold breeze that night gave and I wondered how long my hand felt like that…

Looking down to inspect it, I saw my glove come into view and it was covered in something red… I quickly looked at my other hand saw it was in the same condition. A cold feeling of realization started to fill me as I lifted the object I realized I was holding that weighed down a bit to examine it.

_What was I even holding? A-and not that but why is it covered in blood?! _

I looked down at the key-like object wondering what it even was; perhaps a much decorated sword of some kind? But why was it in the shape of a key? And why was there so much blood?!

"It's a keyblade." A low voice spoke out as I turned around but saw no one there.

"W-what? Um, mind telling who are you and what's a keyblade?" I asked looking around for the owner of the voice and soon felt something behind me.

It felt like the back of a tall figure and was wearing some kind of leather robe.

"Soon you will realize. This fragment you're in, it's one of the many that may come forth if choose it to be so."

I turned to see but then again there was nothing as the wind pushed past me and I quickly gazed all over the place this time but I still couldn't find him. What was he even talking about? Fragments? What did that mean?

And what did he mean by choosing? Did he know me?

I shook my head and started to confront the voice. "What in the world….Hey! If you're out there, why don't you show yourself!?" I shouted, wondering if he would show.

"SHOW YOURSELF!" I yelled with my eyes closed and soon found myself sitting up straight, that and it was soft.

"W-why am I sitting?" I asked myself before a loud set of knocks pounded on what appeared to be my bedroom door.

"Sora! Were you aware it's 2 AM IN THE MORNING?! I have a new job interview in four hours! I don't care if you're having some fantasy about a man in cloak!" My mother who was obviously still half-asleep from last night's shift yelled at the door as she stormed off.

_Sigh, I wonder what that dream was about? _I yawned and jumped off my bed. Kairi should be waiting by now, better not be late.


	2. Shadow

Quietly I left my bedroom making sure no one would see, out of the house and made my across the sand way to the agreed meeting place where I would find Kairi waiting for me. I bit my lip in hesitation and stopped a bit on the way as something struck me.

_Would she really be there at this time? What if she wasn't there at all?_

I immediately shook the unwanted thoughts from my mind and set my mind straight again. She would be there; if not then something must have happened. Then to try to wake myself up, I stretched out my arms and decided to sit down on a nearby log and sighed.

_..I really wanted to see her today… Maybe something just came up and she couldn't come? Dammit, then this waiting would be for nothing, not to mention the trouble I could or probably will get into for sneaking out so late._

Well overthinking it wouldn't help.

To kill time I decided to hum a tune to myself as I waited and looked around again trying not to think about all the negative ways tonight could end. Thought it was a hard task to do.

I looked at the sky and wondered how late it was then stopped when something caught my attention...

At once I stopped humming and focused on the find. It was something in the dark; it rustled against the grass and stood still when I stood up. Curiosity and boredom getting the better of me I began to approach it to get a better view. The closer I approached it, the clearer its features were becoming as I began to outline its form.

The find appeared to be of human height but was pitch black, devoid of any other color at all and looked like it was made of smoke but solidified into what looked like a human form except for one important feature.

Its eyes.

Its eyes were just two glowing golden lights as it stared at me, curiosity filling them with a sense of recognition as it continued to stare back at me. I drew a calm deep breath to avoid freaking out too much and took care not to make sudden movements; I wouldn't want to scare it away now. I looked at the strange creature before and wondered how something like this could even exist? It looked so similar…

"What are you?" I seemed to ask aloud surprising the creature and even surprising myself as it seemed to have jumped a bit. I did seem to have drawn its attention even further though as a smile flickered across its features in a flash and took off running. I just stood there not sure on what to do as the creature soon looked back and beckoned me with its eyes as if it was waiting for me to catch up with it. Feeling a bit confused, I questioned whether to stay where I was or follow it. I considered my options, there was the fact I was being faced with my double and all and I knew the chances of this even happening was near impossible… My mind was already made up. I decided to pursue after it and ran towards it. It's not every day you find a shadow version of yourself after all. That and I wanted to know what it was and why it showed up at the place I was supposed to meet her. Was it a mere coincidence? If it was a coincidence, this was far too weird for it so it had to real in my reasoning. I gave chase and tried my best to keep up if not run faster but soon it vanished from my sight. I stopped and decided to catch my breath as I gasped for air while searching around for any signs of it.

"Where did it go now?" I said aloud in frustration and confusion as laughter emitted from the darkness behind me, just as if it was a response to my question. I turned around and saw it again. It was waiting for me just like last time, this time with a look of confidence on its face and a hint of mischievousness on its features. I took the advantage and drew closer to but it noticed me as it grew wary and backed up not wanting me to get too close. I stopped but then in an instant, it took off again. I sighed but gave chase again after it again, might as well follow it thoroughly since I came this far.

As we ran it glanced back once in a while to see if I was still following then focused on ahead. This occurred several times as I chased it never casting my eyes on anything else. It seemed it wanted me to continue to follow it as I pursued it. Soon I found the creature slowing its almost ridiculous fast pace down to one I could catch up to with ease. I sped up a bit to catch up to it fully but then slowed down myself as something occurred to me. My surroundings seemed different… I looked around then shock fell over me.

I realized I wasn't on the island anymore…

I looked around me and noticed the scenery had changed from the island landscape. No longer was the night sky above me but a mass void like a gigantic dark room instead. It was devoid of a ceiling or even walls; it was as if the room stretched for eternity. One big empty space… I felt like there was probably no escape to this place and immediately searched around for any signs of _anything _in this space then spotted the impersonator in the middle of it. I admit I felt a bit relieved when I found it and found myself just watching it stand there looking me with scrutiny written in its eyes. I couldn't really tell if it had ill feelings towards me or not but it didn't attack me…yet.

Hesitantly I stood back, doubt soon filling my head as I questioned the reality of my situation. Was this just another dream again? I had to make sure if it was just like last night or not, instinctively I pinched myself and a small bit of blood formed soon from piercing it too hard with my nails. I gasped in pain and flinched but kept myself from uttering any noises as best I could by shutting my mouth shut as best I could with my eyes shut. I opened my eyes again when the pain subsided and saw the shadow creature watch me, tilting its head in confusion at what I just did. I just wiped the blood with the back of my hand and tried to ignore it.

Well, now I knew that pinching yourself in your dream was just an old wives tale after all.

I then drew my attention back to the creature, knowing that dealing with this shadow was most likely the only way to proceed, that and I didn't have any other choice. I drew a deep breath and approached the creature with caution as I stood about a foot away from it. It didn't move from its spot at all and just continued to study me with its glowing eyes, silently judging me as it took me in. I stood just as quietly waiting for it to do something. Then with its arm, it motioned up to the sky and stretched its index finger to something with its eyes fixated at something. I followed to where it was pointing at and soon felt my breath almost escape me as I stared back curious what was above. In the void above me were small swirls of black smoke forming around, swirling here and there in a steady rhythm as it was manifesting into something. I was then alerted back to my senses when the creature who was now at my side tugged at my shirt to gain my attention.

"Is something the matter?" I asked it and looked at the creature as if it wasn't even a threat compared to the phenomenon above. It tried to speak to me by moving its mouth but soon realized I couldn't hear it since no sound came out. It looked annoyed at this realization then pointed to its mouth then looked at me as if asking if I could hear it or not to confirm it.

"S-sorry, I can't hear you at all." I replied back to it. It nodded back understandably then it pointed to my hand this time. I looked back at the creature with confusion then it simply stretched its hand, its index finger forward out towards me as if it was asking for my consent to touch me. Well it did have manners at least but I didn't want to be touched by this thing at all to be honest. But it seemed alright to me so far so I gave my consent with a nod of my head. It nodded its head again then it gently grabbed my wrist and put it in front of my face.

That's when I noticed there was a considerable weight added to my hand and noticed something similar.

It was that "keyblade" again. Just where did it come from?

I looked at the strange item now that it was in front of my face and saw it was a huge old metal key with the handle being yellow. Then my eyes my eyes trailed to the end where a crown was hanging as some kind of charm or something. Well the keyblade looked sharp but looked so cartoonish at the same time. Strange.

My attention turned back to the creature as I looked at the "face" of the creature again, hoping to see some sign or if it knew what I was holding.

I wish I hadn't really though as I stared at it; its smile was twisted this time, its glowing jagged teeth in the shadows that formed a face showed this time. Then out of nowhere it started laughing like mad and bent backwards as it held its face. I was bit taken back by the sudden sinister nature of it and took a small deep breath to calm myself a bit.

"So…what are you exactly?" I finally asked as it grew silent instantly and stopped laughing at once. Then slowly it drew itself up right again and stared at me.

"Not going to answer my question are you?" I asked it, knowing the answer already as it nodded its head.

_Maybe a different question would work._

"Then what's this "keyblade" for? You know what it is, don't you?" I said to the creature, displaying the weapon to it. It looked back at me as if it was wondering whether or not to answer then stopped, startled by something. It backed up like a cat would and cowered in a strange way.

It looked…frightened.

Quickly, the creature looked up again to the spot from before then hastily back at me and eagerly pointed to my weapon in hand as if it were trying to warn me about something.

Before I could even react though, the space between me and the creature grew ten-fold as I felt my back slam into the ground and gasped as most of my air escaped me. My vision blurred a bit as I tried my best to remain calm and steadied my breathing back to normal. Ignoring the dull pain as best I could, I quickly looked around for what caused my sudden fall while regaining my footing, I saw something I wasn't prepared for even if I relived every nightmare I had in my life. I just stood gawking at the beast that silently gazed back at me.

_What in the world… Where was such a thing even hiding?_

_What am I staring at?_

I gazed in horror at the massive beast in silence. It was standing on all fours at least several meters tall I assumed and saw it was oddly made of shadows similar to the creature he had just met but wasn't in the shape. It was a whole different type of shadow.

The form it had made me think it was some kind of massive canine; though something was off from that guess. Either way it did not look friendly in the slightest and stared back with nothing but pure hostility, golden glowing slits staring hungrily at me.

I knew what was going to happen if I just stood back so I readied the "keyblade". It was either that or get eaten and I'd rather not be someone's-scratch that-_something's_ dinner tonight.

I wasn't prepared and was snapped from my thoughts as the massive shadow's arm lashed towards me, I instinctively brought up the blade with both hands as defended myself from the monster's blow as I struggled to keep the keyblade from being thrown out of my hands but the impact proved too strong for me and it sent me sliding across the floor as I struggled to keep both feet on the ground maintaining my balance. That's when I saw a window of opportunity open and I quickly seized the opportunity to counter and brought the keyblade ripping into the creature's arm with all my might. I smirked at the successful counter but immediately recoiled and covered my mouth as the wound gashed open and sprayed blood everywhere. I gagged and pat out the blood that got inside of my mouth as the monster drew back and let out a high pitch wail that made my eardrums feel like they were going to pop. I staggered back and pressed my palms against them to try to mute it out as much as possible, still holding on to the weapon. In my stunned state the creature had brought its other arm around to attack me but I saw it coming, released my ears despite the pain and quickly slid under the arm as I made my way up towards the main body of my attacker. I could see the clear frustration in its eyes as it howled in anger, it had missed its target and it was now even more hostile as a result. I twirled the keyblade in my hand, wiped the blood from my face as much as the back of my hand could and swung the blade at the creature's lower abdomen as hard as I could. I tried to bring the weapon back as the monster wailed again but struggled as it wouldn't budge. I pulled with all my might as the creature started to thrash around sending me flying along with each sudden movement, my hands still holding onto the embedded keyblade as a thought came to me.

_I hope this keyblade is as sharp as it looks…_

As soon as it stopped for a moment I then dragged the keyblade instead of pulling it out and ran across the monster ripping into it as far as I could and tore out the blade. This sent the monster howling into an inhumane frenzy, I glanced back and saw the huge pool of blood I caused before getting smacked by an unseen claw and slammed into the ground.

My vision dimmed a little as I inhaled sharply and felt my lungs constrict, breathing was difficult as I tried my best to calm myself. Easier task said than done, but I had to as the monster started to come after quite hastily in my downed state.

The monster charged itself in my direction, knowing that I had very little time to react I gripped my keyblade and waited as it came towards me.

Then at the right moment I darted forward, running towards it with my eyes locked on to my target as adrenaline rushed through my body. The behemoth took a step back as if startled lowering itself in hesitation as I leapt myself from the ground and lunged forth with the weapon stabbing it into the creature's skull. The piercing sound resonated through the whole area with a loud crack that even made my stomach turn. Trying to calm down my upset stomach I didn't take time to notice the next attack as a dark arm swung at me, I collided right into the side of the beast but I had one hand that gripped tightly onto the keyblade. I wasn't going to die today and not in here. I inhaled a deep breath and swung myself up using the keyblade and I was now sitting on the head of the monster, I could see the crack I made with the keyblade was a growing fissure in the skull slowly spreading. Inside were mostly black shadows of it and blood. I couldn't make out any tissues though that you would find in humans then again why would I find any? My thoughts were interrupted as the creature growled in frustration seeming upset that it still hasn't killed me and was now being examined as some lab specimen. I then stepped up and withdrew the keyblade with a sick gush as it left the cavity then I smashed it into the wound again with both arms this time. It penetrated into it even deeper and as a result sent the monster into howling hysterics. In its blind fury it caught me off guard and grabbed me by the waist pulling me up to its face as I yelped in surprise. I tried moving of its hand but the grip was far too tight, I couldn't even move my arms an inch as I was now facing right into its yellow eyes that were only a few feet away now. My body trembled and I felt my blood run cold as the emptiness and unbound fury that came from those eyes filled me with dread. It didn't last long though, the creature then tightened it's already suffocating grip even further as I felt my air leave me. My vision was failing me and I could tell I was probably going to die… I really didn't want to but there wasn't a way to escape…

_Dammit._

I tried to look up to see its face now. It was blurry and all I could see were the glowing yellows orbs that stared back at me, still full of relentless hatred, no sign of pity or any other feelings of regret as it was slowly killing me. I soon started to accept my fate as I could feel my last breaths of air and my vision now black.

_Sorr.._

_FUCK!_

I heaved as I opened my eyes again and saw the creature's face now meters away from me, there was a sharp pain in my back, and I assumed I probably fell from its grip somehow. There was an insane screeching following that filled the room and soon I saw it was coming from the monster and now realized it had dropped me. Unconcerned with what happened I seized the opportunity and dashed for the keyblade that dropped nearby and turned to the monster. It was cowering in pain from something then looked at me again and howled in anger. It lowered its head as a giant wound spread from its right shoulder, its left claw over it as to calm the bleeding and pain. With no hesitation left inside me I ran towards it and slid as I pushed all my force into a single thrust into the creature's cranium once more. This time it did nothing.

I watched as the blood sprayed forth and covered me in it. The creature grew limp as its limb fell to the floor vibrating the ground, I withdrew the weapon and stared at the now corpse of the behemoth. My heart was racing and my breaths came in sharp hurried breaths as I tried to calm myself down. It was no use though as my entire body shook from the experience. I then noticed on my arm there was a giant gash, I pondered on how to heal it then felt something tug on my other arm. I quickly looked and saw a wisp of shadow around it then noticed several were producing from the corpse as they all lashed out at me and swallowed me in them. The surprise left me angered as I felt bitterness and rage reaching its maximum as I started yelling at the dead remains.

"DAMMIT LET ME GO! I **KILLED** YOU, YOU SHOULD BE **DEAD**! THIS SHOULDN'T BE POSSI-"I barely recognized some of the words that came from me but soon I lost consciousness and drifted to sleep as I the last thing I heard was someone cackling...

I felt myself starting to wake up now as my back was now on something soft and familiar, there was a strong wind in the air and the scent of salt filled the air.

"…-ora?"

Hmm? Was that someone talking?

"Heeey, wake up already."

I felt something soft touch my hand, I fluttered my eyes open and focused a small girl with blue eyes and red hair came into vision.

"…Kairi?" I voiced out, trying to see if what I was seeing was real as the girl nodded, grinning back at me. Relief filled me as I looked at hand and found it quite clean then at my arm and found no wounds. Then my mind raced as I quickly sat up and couldn't find the keyblade or any signs of the room I was in before or the monster.

My panicked actions startled Kairi a bit as she looked at me with worry on her features. "Is something wrong Sora? What kind of dream did you have, your mom said you were out here from 2 am." I looked back at her now confused; if she were here and the sun was already setting how long was I out? "What time is it now then?" I asked.

"It's 5:45. PM." She stated this last part matter of factly as I stared at the sandy beach worried. Weren't dreams only supposed to last about a minute in real time or something? How could I be out for so long?

My thoughts left me as a hand was now in front of my face and saw it belonged to Kairi as giggled.

"You do get pretty lazy, you probably just slept in." Then she lowered it her hand where I could easily grab it. "Well, come on Sora, let's go catch up with Riku, he said he wanted to show us something today, remember?"

I finally let the thoughts leave me and nodded as I let her help me up. Oh well, I guess I can say I have the most interesting dreams at times and walked with her.

**Okay and that was chapter two. Sorry for the wait, I've become quite busy and whatnot during this frustrating age. Please tell me what you think by reviewing and if you have any questions don't hesitate to send a pm. Well that's that for now. : )**


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